Sunday, July 22, 2018

Final days in Formosa

Cǎihóng juàncūn wall painting

Our three weeks in Taiwan are coming to an end. On Sunday afternoon we will drive up to Taoyuan 桃園 and spend the night in a hotel close to the airport before departing for the United States on Monday morning. The highlight of our visit for me naturally was the weeklong road trip my daughter and I took to the east coast last week (for my wife it's been spending time with her family and friends), but these past few days have had their moments as well. Like last Sunday when I took Amber into Taichung 台中 to see Rainbow Village 彩虹眷村 (I know that Fengyuan 豐原 is now a district 區 within the special municipality of Taichung 直轄市, but I remember when it was a city in its own right and the capital of Taichung County 台中縣, and when you reach my age, old habits of thinking are hard to break). Rainbow Village is a former residential quarter in the Nantun District 南屯區 for soldiers from the defeated Kuomintang 中國國民黨 military that was saved from destruction when one of its last residents, a Mr. Wong, decided to paint the houses there in colorful images of animals and people. The crowds that began showing up to admire the artwork convinced the authorities that there was more money to be made from tourism than property development, at least in this case, and the result is a riot of colors, and plenty of photo ops involving Amber:


The artist is still alive. My daughter had to make do with a cardboard cutout, but my friend Steve was able to talk art with Mr. Wong when he paid a visit there:





Amber enjoys a bottle of the Japanese carbonated soft drink Ramune ラムネ:



Speaking of Steve, after checking out the village, we drove over to his home and annoyed hung out with him and his family for a few hours:



On Monday we were visited by the family of one of my daughter's classmates from when she attended school in Shanghai 上海. This must have been a special occasion, for my normally exercise- and sunlight-averse wife stunned me by announcing that all of us would go bicycling in the heat and humidity on the Dongfeng Bicycle Green Way (see here for an English description):




Which way to go? The answer was right, in the direction of Dongshi 東勢, though of course we didn't go the entire 12 kilometers (7.5 miles), reaching only as far as Shigang 石岡. Shu-E has her limits:





The woman in black, dressed as if she was planning to knock over a liquor store and make a break for it on her modified ママチャリ:


The natural place to have stopped in Shigang would have been the dam (see also here), but my wife was in charge so we rode a little further on to see one of those unnecessary tourist "sights" that have sprung up around Taiwan ever since the work and school weeks were reduced to around five days circa 2002. In this case the "attraction" is a series of supposed 3D cartoon drawings on walls based on well-known fairy tales, though some of the renderings bordered on the gruesome:


Riding the narrow lanes of the Real Taiwan® and not the gentrified bubble of Taipei 台北 that so many Westerners inhabit in Formosa:



This painting was described as being in "4D", whatever that means. It turned out to be a protruding concrete knob representing the lion's penis, which greatly distressed Amber. Stay classy Shigang:



Helping out the Little Match Girl, who in the Taiwanese version is apparently dreaming of chicken legs, fruit and NT dollars:



Looking out over the countryside:




On Tuesday I met up with some of my former students at the charming Mild Happiness Cafe in Fengyuan. My thanks to Sharon, Stacey and Henry for a thoroughly enjoyable time and I look forward to seeing them again the next time I'm in Taiwan:




Afterward I drove over to Lihpao Land 麗寶樂園 in Houli, where the girls and our visitors from Taipei had been enjoying themselves in the amusement park section since that morning. We spent the remainder of the afternoon and early evening cooling off in the adjacent Mala Bay waterpark, before having a late dinner at the outlet mall food court:

 The wave pool at closing time


Many of the restaurants and shops in the mall had a Japanese theme, most obviously in the store devoted to products from Hokkaido 北海道. It was there that I purchased a bottle of Premium Beer from the Abashiri Brewery 網走ビール:


On Wednesday I took Amber to the National Museum of Natural Science 國立自然科學博物館 in Taichung. On her first visit back in November 2008 my daughter had found the animatronic dinosaurs to be a little intimidating, though she had overcome that fear on a subsequent visit two years later. She was still impressed with the T-Rex on her third visit:


The museum could do with more English explanations, but is worth visiting for its exhibits on Chinese religion and science and technology, as well as on Taiwan's aborigines. Just don't do what I did - namely, leave my glasses in the car. I had to rely on prescription sunglasses and reading glasses to see things clearly, and much of the time had to depend on Amber to guide me around through the blurriness:






Taiwan hasn't changed much since we left the country in 2012 (plus I made a couple of visits in 2013 and 2015), but one very welcome (and looong overdue) change has been the appearance of craft breweries throughout the island (meaning not just in Taipei). Even Fengyuan has its own brewpub now, 3 Giants Brewing Company 巨人啤酒. It was there that I met a couple of friends for some drinks on Wednesday evening. The food wasn't very good, but the pale ales were excellent. My friends shall remain nameless as the local police set up three (!) checkpoints in the immediate area around the bar later in the evening - one managed to avoid getting stopped as he drove back to Taichung, while the other waited it out in the bar until the police left, and then rode his scooter home to Tanzi 潭子 (I walked back to my in-laws, a trek that took about 40 minutes, but at least my conscience was clear, even if my head wasn't). Where were you, 3 Giants, during those years when I suffered with Taiwan Beer 台灣啤酒, and had to deal with all that hostility when I accurately described it as Budweiser-like bottled urine on my earlier, Taiwan-based blog?:


Thursday was another hot-and-humid day, but I still managed to get out of the house, spurred on by relatives of my wife visiting from Hsinchu 新竹. After lunch I made my break by driving to my old hiking haunting grounds in the hills overlooking Fengyuan's Zhongzheng Park 中正公園. When I was living and working (and suffering) in Taiwan, hiking there and in Taichung's Dakeng 大坑 area was one of the few activities that helped keep my sanity relatively intact. It has been six years since my last  hike in the Zhongzheng Park area, but the trails were where I remembered them to be. The only change of note was the disappearance of the FamilyMart convenience store, meaning I didn't have a bottle of water with me as my made my return to the trails (the Abashiri beer I had when I returned home later made up for some of that oversight). The hike itself was strenuous at times because, let's face it, I'm out of shape and heavier than I used to be. Lithuania is a beautiful country, but while there are lots of forest walks, there are very few vertical challenges for the dedicated hiker. Nevertheless it felt great to be back in the hills:


Critters:




A Buddhist temple in the hills:


Longan 龍眼 hanging overhead:



At the top of the trail 452 meters (1483 feet) above sea level:


Bamboo groves serve to remind that one is in Asia:


Earth God 土地公 shrines serve to remind that one is in Taiwan:



My initial plan was to continue uphill on the road and work my back to the parking lot. However, the sounds of thunder rumbling in the distance, the dark clouds appearing overhead and the weather app on my iPhone calling for an 80% chance of rain within the hour convinced me to cut short the hike. In the end, it didn't rain but too many dumb weather-related choices in the past left me feeling that I had still made the right decision:




It was sad to see Chiang Kai-shek 蔣中正 still stands proudly in Zhongzheng Park. Is Fengyuan the Charlottesville of Taiwan?:


Following the hike, I drove up to a lookout point to gaze out over Fengyuan, as I had done on numerous occasions before:



This building used to serve as a dorm for players on the Sinon Bulls 興農牛 baseball team. The parent company sold the club at the end of the 2012 season - it's now known as the Fubon Guardians 富邦悍將 and plays its home games in New Taipei City 新北市:


Those of you who've read the previous blog entry will know that I purchased a trio of chili beers on the way back to Fengyuan from the east coast. The two milder beers were actually pleasant to drink, but Thursday evening it was time to try the one described as "Suicide Hot" on the label, with a rating of 7 on the Scoville scale:


Shu-E, my brother-in-law and one of his friends getting ready for the taste test:


The reaction:



Yours truly could only handle a single sip before running to the kitchen for the nearest carton of milk to try and put out the fire in my mouth. My brother-in-law then called another friend and invited him over for some drinks, without revealing anything, of course. This friend proceeded to down an entire shot glass. The result:


Taiwanese humor can be very cruel...

On Friday I gave my daughter another opportunity to get out of Fengyuan by taking her on a day trip to that most Taiwanese of cities, Tainan 台南. This was at least my fifth excursion to Taiwan's cultural and historical capital (not counting driving trips to the surrounding area), but the first time of interest for Amber. I mean "of interest" because last year she drove down with her mother to meet one of my wife's friends in Tainan, and pronounced that day to be one of the most boring experiences of her life. Hopefully today's outing was more stimulating. We left Fengyuan by train at around 0915 hours, after having breakfast at the McDonald's in the downtown area. The semi-deserted streets hardly conjured up a rush hour scene:


On the high-speed train to Tainan. The small size of Taiwan makes it debatable whether the country needs a bullet train network, and our trip was slowed down by stops in politically expedient but inconveniently remote stations in the middle of nowhere, but the system is efficient and the trains are admittedly fun to take:


Our trip began with a local TRA 台灣鐵路管理局 train from Fengyuan to Xinwuri 新烏日車站, which connects to the Taichung HSR station 高鐵台中站. Upon arriving at the Tainan HSR station 高鐵台南站, we transferred to another TRA local at the adjoining Shalun station 沙崙車站 for the twenty minute-plus ride into central Tainan. Taking into account all the transfers, it probably would've been almost as quick (and definitely cheaper) to have ridden a regular express train between Fengyuan and Tainan, but where's the fun in that?:


My daughter pictured outside Tainan's historic railway station 台南車站. The 1936 building is under wraps as part of a renovation project, which is why it was behind me as I took the below pic:


Our first stop in Tainan was the Hayashi Department Store 林百貨. Five years earlier, on my tour of Japanese Tainan, I made a stop here only to encounter an empty structure undergoing restoration. Now it's a fully-functioning shopping center that has done a good job of playing up to its history. I'll let the plaque out front explain the story:



The rooftop boasts a Shintō shrine 神社:



Again, I'll post a photo of a sign rather than do my own research:


Across the street stands the 1937 Art Deco Land Bank building:


Tainan is noted throughout the country for its snacks. For lunch we tried one of them, Danzi noodles 擔仔麵. And as with many foods in Taiwan, while good, it was hard to see what all the fuss is about:


The first-floor souvenir shop, where we bought some obligatory treats to bring back to the family:


Next, we took a bus to the western Anping District 安平區, home to some of the city's most historic relics and temples, and where the Dutch built their first fort in Taiwan. Our intended destination was the Anping Tree House. But as it's part of a complex that includes two other buildings, we first popped into a small museum dedicated to a noted calligrapher. Neither of us was very interested:


More interesting was the Former Tait & Co. Merchant House 原英商德記洋行, built in 1867 after Taiwan was opened up to Western traders in the aftermath of the Second Opium War:


The exhibits within cover Taiwan's early trading history, and include examples of the official seal used by the British Consulate in Tainan as well as period tea advertisements:




Amber learns just how hard it was to be an exploited Chinese laborer:


The highlight of our visit for my daughter was the Anping Tree House 安平樹屋. It's an old warehouse that has slowly and inexorably been taken over by a massive banyan tree. The interior was much darker than the photos below would indicate, and the humidity inside was oppressive, which only added to the creepy atmosphere:






Looking toward the central part of the city from the rear of the complex:


It was getting late in the afternoon so we caught a bus back to Tainan station, from which we backtracked our way to Fengyuan. It was probably quicker to have taken a regular express train but, as I noted earlier, where's the fun in that? Amber jumps for joy after stepping off the high speed train in Taichung:


Sunset as seen from the platform of the HSR station:


We had dinner at the station before getting on the local train for the short ride to Fengyuan. カツカレーオムライス washed down with a キリン一番搾りビール at a ファミリーレストランロイヤルホスト - where did Taiwan disappear to?:


Saturday was devoted to visiting the in-laws living in Shu-E's hometown of Siluo 西螺 in Yunlin County 雲林縣. Before hitting the road, we lunched at a teppanyaki restaurant around the corner from my mother- and brother-in-law's house in Fengyuan, where I ordered mutton. In a country that seems as much a Japanophile in the collective sense as I am as an individual, teppanyaki 鉄板焼き is one of the more popular imports from Nippon 日本:


She Who Must Be Obeyed decreed that we had to visit two temples today to pay our respects. The first, Daming Temple 大明宮 in neighboring Shengang 神岡, is the Taoist temple to which my wife's family belongs (my brother-in-law's name is etched by one of the entrances in recognition of his financial contributions). Three stories high, it's a surprisingly large structure considering the somewhat bleak agricultural/industrial area that surrounds it:



Looking out from the second floor:



The view from the third floor. This was the first area where Shu-E and I lived after getting married. From these photos, you  might understand why I can't stand those clueless foreigners living in the Taipei Bubble:




Eventually we got on the freeway and left Taichung behind. Within the hour, we were cruising the sleepy streets of Siluo:


It was in Siluo that we stopped at temple #2, this one devoted to the goddess Matsu 媽祖:


Our humble offerings:





The girls burn some ghost money 金紙:



Supplications finished, we had dinner with my brother-in-law as well as both sisters-in-law and their families at a local restaurant. My daughter reluctantly tried a piece of intestine:


Her understandable reaction:


Intestines aside, I approved of this meal:


My wife, her older sister and her brother say their goodbyes before we head back to Fengyuan:


On the way "home" I attempted to capture on video part of what constitutes Taichung's skyline. The results were somewhat mixed:


And so concludes our roughly three weeks back in Taiwan. I'm sure for my wife it hasn't been long enough, but for me it's time to move on to the next stage in our travels, namely Home Leave. Nevertheless, I've had a very enjoyable time here, thanks in no small part to my relatives, as well as Steve, Michael, Henry, Sharon and Stacey. Seeing as the last time I was in-country was only three years ago, very little has changed on the surface, with the exception of the elevated train tracks in Taichung. I have noticed, however, that people here don't seem to react with as much shock or surprise to discover a wàiguórén 外國人 in their midst, an observation echoed by my daughter. Perhaps this has to do with all the young Westerners who have been teaching children in kindergartens and cram schools (my previous gig) over the years - I previously noted the same phenomenon in Japan and attributed it to the success of the JET program, so it could be a similar effect is being felt now in Taiwan. Even being out amongst the natives on a Saturday night in Siluo didn't seem to generate the same level of unwanted buzz as the last time I ventured into Yunlin. Whatever the reason, it's a welcome if long overdue, development.

Until the next time, Taiwan...

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